Balthazar--Manhattan

212.965.1414

Okay another institutional restaurant though not quite as "famous" as the other, lesser institutional restaurants I've critiqued.  Balthazar has been an industry standard sort of speak.  A place that is so well run, so consistent, and so fashionable that it is the bar for those looking to open a restaurant with the hopes of opening more.  So this is kind of a first for me, because I'm all a flutter with praise. First of all, Mcnally is a genius.  Not in a traditional I'm-solving-difficult-math-problems way, but rather he is quite masterful at creating restaurants that have an autonomy yet at the same time consistent service and operational standards.  Goodness gracious, I'm sounding a bit nerdy here.

This restaurant generally regarded as one of the better French bistros in NYC.  And why not?  They have oyster towers and a multidude of waiters and all sorts of official looking people scurrying to and fro.  It's big, and overwhelming, and when I'm there I feel like Ernest Hemmingway could sit down next to me.  To be honest there's a fair amount of Eurotrash, and since we went on our anniversary (and wifey wife is as pregnant as can bet) the snooty Soho Maitre D stuck us in the way back.  But who cares?  The French cuisine-arguably the most sophisticated cuisine on the planet- was exectuted with authentic detail.  Wifey wife had the onion soup and then a fish special and I had the steak tar tar and the mussels.  All of it was quite delicious.

So Iconman, what's with all of this reverence?  How is it you can shit all over 11 Madison Park and Peter Luger but you are practically offering Mcnally a rim job?  Good questions beloved nine.  I have respect for people who quietly create a perfect brand, without the pretension or ego.  I wasn't offered a menu of just proteins, nor was I expected to be impressed just because some douchebag local 111 waiter decided to eventually serve me.  No, with Balthazar, like any well run establishment, I left completely satisfied.

Odd Side Social Commentary

So I put this little nugget aside a few years ago while revisiting Hunter S Thompson's collection the Great Shark Hunt.  This little morsel encapsulated what is happening in Brooklyn so well, that I flagged it for future reference when I didn't have a restaurant to review (which is currently the case as I am forbidden to write about Virginia Beach by wife #1).

After re-reading, its not so much a crime or drug thing, though that is prevalent, but rather a real estate thing.  But overall the gist is there:

"The pattern never varies: a low-rent area suddenly blooms new and loose and human--and then fashionable, which attracts the press and the cops about the same time.  Cop problems attract more publicity, which then attracts junkies and jack-rollers.  Their bad action causes mobile types who dig the menace of "white ghetto" life and whose expense account tastes drive local rents and street prices out of reach of the original settlers...who are forced, once again, to move on." (Thompson, The Great Shark Hunt, pg 156--Rolling Stone #60, 1970).

Okay.  A few thoughts here that actually pertain to restaurants, as the are a component of the catalyst in the gentrification of a neighborhood.  And not to be too philosophical, but the attraction to Brooklyn is not so cut and dry, it involves a tremendous amount of peduciary factors, especially on a personal level.  With that said, however, there is something to selecting North West Brooklyn as opposed to The Bronx, or other parts of Queens that have as many amenities, low rents, etc...  Why is it that this particular neighborhood blew up versus Woodside queens for instance?  And the answer to that question, and the application of Mr. Thompson's theory are what I am trying to zone in on.  It's why there are now a bazillion restaurants and people who once lived in the East Village that swore they would never go to Brooklyn are now their biggest proponents.  There was a cache, created by artists, drug addicts (cokie's anyone?) and overall derelicts that settled Williamsburg.  They have now moved on pushed out by the mobile types.  They are now infiltrating Bedstuy and Bushwik.  There was an article in the Sunday Times Magazine (7/15/12) that talked about this--for the record the exact same article was published on line prior to the magazine, here's the linkehttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/magazine/bronx-economy.html?hpw...  Interesting.  That's all.